Dao and Sign in History
Dao and Sign in History

Author: Daniel Fried

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2018-10-29

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1438471939

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Provides a new perspective on important linguistic issues in philosophical and religious Daoism through the comparative lens of twentieth-century European philosophies of language. From its earliest origins in the Dao De Jing, Daoism has been known as a movement that is skeptical of the ability of language to fully express the truth. While many scholars have compared the earliest works of Daoism to language-skeptical movements in twentieth-century European philosophy and have debated to what degree early Daoism does or does not resemble these recent movements, Daniel Fried breaks new ground by examining a much broader array of Daoist materials from ancient and medieval China and showing how these works influenced ideas about language in medieval religion, literature, and politics. Through an extended comparison with a broad sample of European philosophical works, the book explores how ideas about language grow out of a given historical moment and advances a larger argument about how philosophical and religious ideas cannot be divided into “content” and “context.” “Fried combines the disciplines of semiotics with a largely philosophical approach, thus offering fresh insights into both disciplines, while looking at issues from multiple perspectives.” — Steven Burik, author of The End of Comparative Philosophy and the Task of Comparative Thinking: Heidegger, Derrida, and Daoism

Sea Currents in Nineteenth-Century Art, Science and Culture
Sea Currents in Nineteenth-Century Art, Science and Culture

Author: Kathleen Davidson

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2023-03-09

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 1501352806

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How did scientists, artists, designers, manufacturers and amateur enthusiasts experience and value the sea and its products? Examining the commoditization of the ocean world during the nineteenth century, this book demonstrates how the transaction of oceanic objects inspired a multifaceted material discourse stemming from scientific exploration, colonial expansion, industrialization, and the rise of middle-class leisure. From the seashore to the seabed, marine organisms and environments, made tangible through processing and representational technologies, captivated practitioners and audiences. Combining essays and case studies by scholars, curators, and scientists, Sea Currents investigates the collecting and display, illustration and ornamentation, and trade and consumption of marine flora and fauna, analysing their material, aesthetic and commercial dimensions. Traversing global art history, the history of science, empire studies, anthropology, ecocriticism and material culture, this book surveys the currency of marine matter embedded in the economies and ecologies of a modernizing ocean world.

Daoism in Japan
Daoism in Japan

Author: Jeffrey L. Richey

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-05-01

Total Pages: 458

ISBN-13: 1317662857

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Like an ancient river, Daoist traditions introduced from China once flowed powerfully through the Japanese religious landscape, forever altering its topography and ecology. Daoism’s presence in Japan still may be discerned in its abiding influence on astrology, divination, festivals, literature, politics, and popular culture, not to mention Buddhism and Shintō. Despite this legacy, few English-language studies of Daoism’s influence on Japanese religious culture have been published. Daoism in Japan provides an exploration of the particular pathways by which Daoist traditions entered Japan from continental East Asia. After addressing basic issues in both Daoist Studies and the study of Japanese religions, including the problems of defining ‘Daoism’ and ‘Japanese,’ the book looks at the influence of Daoism on ancient, medieval and modern Japan in turn. To do so, the volume is arranged both chronologically and topically, according to the following three broad divisions: "Arrivals" (c. 5th-8th centuries CE), "Assimilations" (794-1868), and "Apparitions" (1600s-present). The book demonstrates how Chinese influence on Japanese religious culture ironically proved to be crucial in establishing traditions that usually are seen as authentically, even quintessentially, Japanese. Touching on multiple facets of Japanese cultural history and religious traditions, this book is a fascinating contribution for students and scholars of Japanese Culture, History and Religions, as well as Daoist Studies.

The Way of Complete Perfection
The Way of Complete Perfection

Author:

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2013-06-05

Total Pages: 471

ISBN-13: 1438446535

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Originating about 1163 CE, Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism is one of the most important Daoist movements in Chinese history. It remains the dominant form of monastic Daoism in the modern world, especially in its Longmen (Dragon Gate) lineage. This landmark anthology provides complete or partial translations of twenty-one Quanzhen texts. Most have never been translated or even discussed in scholarly literature. Louis Komjathy gives particular attention to work completed by the Quanzhen movement's founder, Wang Chongyang (1113–1170 CE), and his first generation disciples. Translations include representative works from every major genre of Quanzhen literature, from poetry and discourse records to didactic texts, commentaries, and hagiographies. Three monastic manuals from the late medieval and late imperial periods of Quanzhen history are also included. An introduction to Quanzhen Daoism begins the work, and each chapter provides discussions of the history and topics relevant to each translation.

To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth
To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth

Author: Robert F. Campany

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2002-04-08

Total Pages: 637

ISBN-13: 0520927605

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In late classical and early medieval China, ascetics strove to become transcendents--deathless beings with supernormal powers. Practitioners developed dietetic, alchemical, meditative, gymnastic, sexual, and medicinal disciplines (some of which are still practiced today) to perfect themselves and thus transcend death. Narratives of their achievements circulated widely. Ge Hong (283-343 c.e.) collected and preserved many of their stories in his Traditions of Divine Transcendents, affording us a window onto this extraordinary response to human mortality. Robert Ford Campany's groundbreaking and carefully researched text offers the first complete, critical translation and commentary for this important Chinese religious work, at the same time establishing a method for reconstructing lost texts from medieval China. Clear, exacting, and annotated, the translation comprises over a hundred lively, engaging narratives of individuals deemed to have fought death and won. Additionally, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth systematically introduces the Chinese quest for transcendence, illuminating a poorly understood tradition that was an important source of Daoist religion and a major social, cultural, and religious phenomenon in its own right.

Seeking Hidden Treasures
Seeking Hidden Treasures

Author: Mary R. Sumners

Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.

Published: 2023-11-07

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13:

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Seeking Hidden Treasures is a book relevant for the tumultuous times of today, a journey filled with personal stories, adventures, challenges, and rewards as you collect the treasures and spoils of war. As you read and study God's Word, you will be given insight into God's answers for your daily challenges. You will be given insight into the invisible realm of the kingdom of God and how it affects your daily life. Do you want to go deeper into the mysteries of God? Journey with the author, investigating the Scriptures, discovering the knowledge and wisdom of God, his spiritual technology and the strategy of his ways. As you are pulled into a reality of the presence and proximity of God, you will dwell in a new spiritual dimension of Christ. You will partner with him on a faith-based journey into greater maturity and victory. Following the clues highlighted by color to learn the character of God and his ways, you will find the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are hidden in the Father and in Christ. As you journey with the author from mountain to mountain, you will war against darkness and deception to discover truth and light. You will be fortified by the Word and strengthened as you put on the armor of God to pull down strongholds of deception in your mind. Your declarations of truth are rewarded with an illumination of light. Then, giving glory to God, there is a space to journal the "riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God" that you have discovered (Colossians 2:2-3).